System and method for hybrid callback management with transparent user authentication

ABSTRACT

A system and method for hybrid callback management with transparent user authentication, utilizing a callback cloud and an on-premise callback system, allowing users to be verified via his or her biometrics, and also allowing brands to utilize a hybrid system that protects against any premise outages or cloud service faults and failures by introducing redundancies and co-maintenance of data key to callback execution.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Priority is claimed in the application data sheet to the followingpatents or patent applications, each of which is expressly incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety:

-   -   Ser. No. 17/727,906    -   Ser. No. 17/546,113    -   Ser. No. 17/366,405    -   Ser. No. 17/011,248    -   Ser. No. 16/995,424    -   Ser. No. 16/896,108    -   Ser. No. 16/836,798    -   Ser. No. 16/542,577    -   Ser. No. 62/858,454    -   Ser. No. 62/820,190    -   Ser. No. 16/152,403    -   Ser. No. 16/058,044    -   Ser. No. 14/532,001    -   Ser. No. 13/659,902    -   Ser. No. 13/479,870    -   Ser. No. 13/446,758    -   Ser. No. 12/320,517

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of contact center technology,specifically to the field of cloud-implemented automated callbacksystems.

Discussion of the State of the Art

Many businesses use groups of service representatives for communicatingwith clients who initiate communications with the business, such as bytelephone calls. To most efficiently use the time and skills of eachservice representative, the service representatives may be organizedinto groups based on a skill set. For example, the groupings may bebased on the representative's ability to handle client issues such asthe opening of new accounts, billing issues and customer service issueson existing accounts.

Typically, if a client calls such a business, voice prompt menu choicesenable the calling client to identify the issue for which the clientrequires service and the client is then queued for a service agentcapable of handling the identified issue. As such, it is expected thatclients who identify the purpose of their call as a “billing issue” willbe queued for, and connected to, a service representative with theability to handle billing issues. Similarly, it is expected that clientswho identify the purpose of their call as a “customer service issue”will be queued for, and connected to, a service representative with theability to handle customer service issues.

There are problems with existing communications systems, such as contactcenters, including the following two problems. First, the voice promptmenus that are used to channel callers to the queue for the appropriategroup of service agents are exacerbating to a client at best. It takessignificant time to navigate the layered menus of voice prompts.

Second, waiting on-hold while a connection, be it a phone call, webchat, video conference, or other interaction type, is maintained inqueue for connection to a service agent is also exacerbating to a clientat best.

In an effort to reduce customer exacerbation caused by having tomaintain a connection while on-hold in queue, secondary queue systemshave been developed. A typical secondary queue system obtains atelephone number at which the calling client can be reached when aservice representative is available (i.e., a call back number). Theclient disconnects, and then, at the proper time, a call back systemestablishes a connection to the client utilizing the call back numberand couples the client to an available representative without waitingon-hold in queue. One exemplary system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.6,563,921 to Williams et al. which is commonly assigned with the presentapplication.

While such a system may make the experience of waiting for a connectionto a service representative slightly less exasperating, it does notaddress the inconvenience of having to navigate an irritatingly slow andusually complicated voice prompt menu to enter the queue.

What is needed is a system and various methods for providing a callbackcloud and related services that overcome the limitations of the priorart noted above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, asystem and method for hybrid callback management with transparent userauthentication, utilizing a callback cloud and an on-premise callbacksystem, allowing users to be verified via his or her biometrics, andalso allowing brands to utilize a hybrid system that protects againstany premise outages or cloud service faults and failures by introducingredundancies and co-maintenance of data key to callback execution.

In a first preferred embodiment, a system for hybrid callback managementwith transparent user authentication, comprising: a callback cloudservice comprising at least a processor, a memory, and a first pluralityof programming instructions stored in the memory and operating on theprocessor, wherein the first programming instructions, when operating onthe processor, cause the processor to: communicate with an on-premisecallback system; generate a biometric authentication request for a usermaking a callback request; obtain from the user device, a plurality ofvoice utterances; generate a voice ID from the obtained plurality ofvoice utterances, the voice ID being based on the biometricauthentication request relating to the identity of a user of the device;execute the callback request; and an on-premise callback systemcomprising at least a processor, a memory, and a second plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in the memory and operating on theprocessor, wherein the second programming instructions, when operatingon the processor, cause the processor to: communicate with the callbackcloud service; send data related to callback requests to the callbackcloud service; create a callback object upon a user requesting a callback from a brand; schedule a callback with the user; execute thecallback between the user and an agent at a specified time; connect thetwo parties, when the two first and second called parties are online;and confirm, using the callback object, whether the user of the deviceis an authorized user, is disclosed.

In a second preferred embodiment, a method for hybrid callbackmanagement with transparent user authentication, comprising the stepsof: communicating with an on-premise callback system, using a callbackcloud service; generating a biometric authentication request for a usermaking a callback request; obtaining from the user device, a pluralityof voice utterances; generating a voice ID from the obtained pluralityof voice utterances, the voice ID being based on the biometricauthentication request relating to the identity of a user of the device;executing the callback request; communicating with the callback cloudservice, at an on-premise callback system; sending data related tocallback requests to the callback cloud service; creating a callbackobject upon a user requesting a call back from a brand; scheduling acallback with the user; executing the callback between the user and anagent at a specified time; connecting the two parties, when the twofirst and second called parties are online; and confirming, using thecallback object, whether the user of the device is an authorized user,is disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects and, together withthe description, serve to explain the principles of the inventionaccording to the aspects. It will be appreciated by one skilled in theart that the particular arrangements illustrated in the drawings aremerely exemplary, and are not to be considered as limiting of the scopeof the invention or the claims herein in any way.

FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART) is a block diagram illustrating an on-premisecallback system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor operating a callback cloud, according to one aspect.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a callback cloud operating over a public switched telephone networkand internet, to a variety of other brand devices and services,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a callback cloud operating including a brand interface server andintent analyzer, over a public switched telephone network and internet,to a variety of other brand devices and services, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a hybrid callback system operating with a callback cloud and anon-premise callback stack, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a hybrid callback system operating with a callback cloud and anon-premise callback stack, and a broker server, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 7 (PRIOR ART) is a method diagram illustrating steps in theoperation of an on-premise callback system.

FIG. 8 is a method diagram illustrating the use of a callback cloud forintent-based active callback management, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a method diagram illustrating the operation of a distributedhybrid callback system architecture utilizing cloud services andon-premise services, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a method diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a premise callback server failure.

FIG. 11 is a method diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a total system failure.

FIG. 12 is a method diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a premise automatic call distribution and callback serverfailure.

FIG. 13 is a method diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a partial system failure, using a broker server to leveragethird-party resources for failure recovery.

FIG. 14 is a method diagram illustrating calculation and recalculationof an estimated wait-time (EWT) for a distributed callback system.

FIG. 15 is a message flow diagram illustrating the operation of adistributed hybrid callback system architecture utilizing cloud servicesand on-premise services, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a premise callback server failure.

FIG. 17 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a total system failure.

FIG. 18 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a premise automatic call distribution and callback serverfailure.

FIG. 19 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a partial system failure, using a broker server to leveragethird-party resources for failure recovery.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logicalarchitecture for a client device.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architecturalarrangement of clients, servers, and external services.

FIG. 23 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a hybrid callback system operating with a callback cloud and anon-premise callback stack, and a biometric authenticator, according toan embodiment.

FIG. 25 is a method diagram illustrating the use of a callback cloudusing biometric authentication, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 26 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method fortransparent biometric authentication, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 27 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method forauthenticating a user through voice identification, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 28 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method forauthenticating a user using information in a callback object, accordingto an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a system and methodfor hybrid callback management with transparent user authentication,utilizing a callback cloud and an on-premise callback system, allowingusers to be verified via his or her biometrics, and also allowing brandsto utilize a hybrid system that protects against any premise outages orcloud service faults and failures by introducing redundancies andco-maintenance of data key to callback execution.

One or more different aspects may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein,numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presentedherein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widelyapplicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theaspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularaspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects describedherein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspectsor figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which areshown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more ofthe aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features arenot limited to usage in the one or more particular aspects or figureswith reference to which they are described. The present disclosure isneither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of theaspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects thatmust be present in all arrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication witheach other does not imply that all such components are required. To thecontrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fullyillustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps,method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequentialorder, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally beconfigured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated tothe contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may bedescribed in this patent application does not, in and of itself,indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. Thesteps of described processes may be performed in any order practical.Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite beingdescribed or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because onestep is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of aprocess by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that theillustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modificationsthereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its stepsare necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that theillustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally describedonce per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or thatthey may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm iscarried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects orsome occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in agiven aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need notinclude the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of various aspects in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Definitions

“Callback” as used herein refers to an instance of an individual beingcontacted after their initial contact was unsuccessful. For instance, ifa first user calls a second user on a telephone, but the second userdoes not receive their call for one of numerous reasons includingturning off their phone or simply not picking up, the second user maythen place a callback to the first user once they realize they missedtheir call. This callback concept applies equally to many forms ofinteraction that need not be restricted to telephone calls, for exampleincluding (but not limited to) voice calls over a telephone line, videocalls over a network connection, or live text-based chat such as webchat or short message service (SMS) texting. While a callback (andvarious associated components, methods, and operations taught herein)may also be used with an e-mail communication despite the inherentlyasynchronous nature of email (participants may read and reply to emailsat any time, and need not be interacting at the same time or while otherparticipants are online or available), the preferred usage as taughtherein refers to synchronous communication (that is, communication whereparticipants are interacting at the same time, as with a phone call orchat conversation).

“Callback object” as used herein means a data object representingcallback data, such as the identities and call information for a firstand second user, the parameters for a callback including what time itshall be performed, and any other relevant data for a callback to becompleted based on the data held by the callback object.

“Latency period” as used herein refers to the period of time betweenwhen a Callback Object is created and the desired Callback is initiated,for example, if a callback object is created and scheduled for a timefive hours from the creation of the object, and the callback initiateson-time in five hours, the latency period is equal to the five hoursbetween the callback object creation and the callback initiation.

“Brand” as used herein means a possible third-party service or devicethat may hold a specific identity, such as a specific MAC address, IPaddress, a username or secret key which can be sent to a cloud callbacksystem for identification, or other manner of identifiable device orservice that may connect with the system. Connected systems or servicesmay include a Private Branch Exchange (“PBX”), call router, chat serverwhich may include text or voice chat data, a Customer RelationshipManagement (“CRM”) server, an Automatic Call Distributor (“ACD”), or aSession Initiation Protocol (“SIP”) server.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART) is a block diagram illustrating an on-premisecallback system. A possible plurality of consumer endpoints 110 may beconnected to either a Public Switch Telephone Network (“PSTN”) 103 orthe Internet 102, further connecting them to an on-premise callbacksystem 120. Such consumer endpoints may include a telephone 111 whichconnects over a PSTN, a mobile phone 112 capable of connecting overeither a PSTN 103 or the Internet 102, a tablet 113 capable ofconnecting over either a PSTN 103 or the Internet 102, or a laptop 114or Personal Computer (“PC”) 115 capable of connecting over the Internet102. Connected to the Internet 102 is a callback organizer 140, whichorganizes callback data across internet 102 and PSTN 103 connections toconsumer endpoints 110 and a local area network or wide area network 130to further on-premise components. Other on-premise orinter-organizational endpoints may include agent cellular devices 121,an internal telephone switch 122 and telephone 127 which connect to thePSTN 103, a PC 126 or a tablet 128 that may be connected over a LAN orWAN 130. These brand endpoints in an on-premise callback system 120 maybe involved in callbacks over the PSTN 103 or internet 102 connections,as organized by a callback organizer 140, which is responsible for allaspects of organizing callback requests including managing andcalculating Estimated Wait-Times (EWT), managing agent schedule data,managing consumer queues and the agents logged into those queues, andother typical functions of an on-premise callback system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the invention,illustrating an exemplary architecture of a system 200 for providing acallback cloud service. According to the embodiment, callback cloud 201may receive requests 240 via a plurality of communications networks suchas a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 203 or the Internet 202.These requests may comprise a variety of communication and interactiontypes, for example including (but not limited to) voice calls over atelephone line, video calls over a network connection, or livetext-based chat such as web chat or short message service (SMS) textingvia PSTN 203. Such communications networks may be connected to aplurality of consumer endpoints 210 and enterprise endpoints 220 asillustrated, according to the particular architecture of communicationnetwork involved. Exemplary consumer endpoints 210 may include, but arenot limited to, traditional telephones 211, cellular telephones 212,mobile tablet computing devices 213, laptop computers 214, or desktoppersonal computers (PC) 215. Such devices may be connected to respectivecommunications networks via a variety of means, which may includetelephone dialers, VOIP telecommunications services, web browserapplications, SMS text messaging services, or other telephony or datacommunications services. It will be appreciated by one having ordinaryskill in the art that such means of communication are exemplary, andmany alternative means are possible and becoming possible in the art,any of which may be utilized as an element of system 200 according tothe invention.

A PSTN 203 or the Internet 202 (and it should be noted that not allalternate connections are shown for the sake of simplicity, for examplea desktop PC 226 may communicate via the Internet 202) may be furtherconnected to a plurality of enterprise endpoints 220, which may comprisecellular telephones 221, telephony switch 222, desktop environment 225,internal Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide-Area Network (WAN) 230, andmobile devices such as tablet computing device 228. As illustrated,desktop environment 225 may include both a telephone 227 and a desktopcomputer 226, which may be used as a network bridge to connect atelephony switch 222 to an internal LAN or WAN 230, such that additionalmobile devices such as tablet PC 228 may utilize switch 222 tocommunicate with PSTN 202. Telephone 227 may be connected to switch 222or it may be connected directly to PSTN 202. It will be appreciated thatthe illustrated arrangement is exemplary, and a variety of arrangementsthat may comprise additional devices known in the art are possible,according to the invention.

Callback cloud 201 may respond to requests 240 received fromcommunications networks with callbacks appropriate to the technologyutilized by such networks, such as data or Voice over Internet Protocol(VOIP) callbacks 245, 247 sent to Internet 202, or time-divisionmultiplexing (TDM) such as is commonly used in cellular telephonynetworks such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)cellular network commonly used worldwide, or VOIP callbacks to PSTN 203.Data callbacks 247 may be performed over a variety of Internet-enabledcommunications technologies, such as via e-mail messages, applicationpop-ups, or Internet Relay Chat (IRC) conversations, and it will beappreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art that a wide varietyof such communications technologies are available and may be utilizedaccording to the invention. VOIP callbacks may be made using either, orboth, traditional telephony networks such as PSTN 203 or over VOIPnetworks such as Internet 202, due to the flexibility to the technologyinvolved and the design of such networks. It will be appreciated thatsuch callback methods are exemplary, and that callbacks may be tailoredto available communications technologies according to the invention.

A profile manager 250 associated with a callback cloud 201 may receiveinitial requests to connect to the callback cloud 201, and forwardrelevant user profile information to a callback manager 270, which mayfurther request environmental context data from an environment analyzer260. Environmental context data may include (for example, and notlimited to) recorded information about when a callback requester orcallback recipient may be suspected to be driving or commuting fromwork, for example, and may be parsed from online profiles or onlinetextual data.

The callback manager 270 centrally manages all callback data, creating acallback object which may be used to manage the data for a particularcallback, and communicates with an interaction manager 280 which handlesrequests to make calls and bridge calls, which go out to a media server290 which actually makes the calls as requested. In this way, the mediaserver 290 may be altered in the manner in which it makes and bridgescalls when directed, but the callback manager 270 does not need toadjust itself, due to going through an intermediary component, theinteraction manager 280, as an interface between the two. A media server290, when directed, may place calls and send messages, emails, orconnect voice over IP (“VoIP”) calls and video calls, to users over aPSTN 203 or the Internet 202. Callback manager 270 may work with auser's profile as managed by a profile manager 250, with environmentalcontext from an environment analyzer 260 as well as (if provided) EWTinformation for any callback recipients (for example, contact centeragents with the appropriate skills to address the callback requestor'sneeds, or online tech support agents to respond to chat requests), todetermine an appropriate callback time for the two users (a callbackrequestor and a callback recipient), interfacing with an interactionmanager 280 to physically place and bridge the calls with a media server290. If a callback is requested, a callback cloud 201 may find anoptimal time to bridge a call between the callback requestor andcallback recipient, as necessary.

Additionally, callback cloud 201 may receive estimated wait time (EWT)information from an enterprise 220 such as a contact center. Thisinformation may be used to estimate the wait time for a caller beforereaching an agent (or other destination, such as an automated billingsystem), and determine whether to offer a callback proactively beforethe customer has waited for long. EWT information may also be used toselect options for a callback being offered, for example to determineavailability windows where a customer's callback is most likely to befulfilled (based on anticipated agent availability at that time), or tooffer the customer a callback from another department or location thatmay have different availability. This enables more detailed and relevantcallback offerings by incorporating live performance data from anenterprise, and improves customer satisfaction by saving additional timewith preselected recommendations and proactively-offered callbacks.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a callback cloud operating over a public switched telephone networkand the Internet, and connecting to a variety of other brand devices andservices, according to an embodiment. A collection of user brands 310may be present either singly or in some combination, possibly includinga Public Branch Exchange (“PBX”) 311, a Session Initiation Protocol(“SIP”) server 312, a Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) server313, a call router 314, or a chat server 315, or some combination ofthese brands. These brands 310 may communicate over a combination of, oronly one of, a Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”) 203, and theInternet 202, to communicate with other devices including a callbackcloud 320, a company phone 221, or a personal cellular phone 212. A SIPserver 312 is responsible for initiating, maintaining, and terminatingsessions of voice, video, and text or other messaging protocols,services, and applications, including handling of PBX 311 phonesessions, CRM server 313 user sessions, and calls forwarded via a callrouter 314, all of which may be used by a business to facilitate diversecommunications requests from a user or users, reachable by phone 221,212 over either PSTN 203 or the Internet 202. A chat server 315 may beresponsible for maintaining one or both of text messaging with a user,and automated voice systems involving technologies such as an AutomatedCall Distributor (“ACD”), forwarding relevant data to a call router 314and CRM server 313 for further processing, and a SIP server 312 forgenerating communications sessions not run over the PSTN 203. Varioussystems may also be used to monitor their respective interactions (forexample, chat session by a chat server 315 or phone calls by an ACD orSIP server 312), to track agent and resource availability for producingEWT estimations.

When a user calls from a mobile device 212 or uses some communicationapplication such as (for example, including but not limited to) SKYPE™or instant messaging, which may also be available on a laptop or othernetwork endpoint 660, 670 other than a cellular phone 212, they may beforwarded to brands 310 operated by a business in the manner describedherein. For example, a cellular phone call my be placed over PSTN 203before being handled by a call router 314 and generating a session witha SIP server 312, the SIP server creating a session with a callbackcloud 320 with a profile manager 321 if the call cannot be completed,resulting in a callback being required. A profile manager 321 in acallback cloud 320 receives initial requests to connect to callbackcloud 320, and forwards relevant user profile information to a callbackmanager 323, which may further request environmental context data froman environment analyzer 322. Environmental context data may include (forexample, and not limited to) recorded information about when a callbackrequester or callback recipient may be suspected to be driving orcommuting from work, for example, and may be parsed from online profilesor online textual data, using an environment analyzer 322.

A callback manager 323 centrally manages all callback data, creating acallback object which may be used to manage the data for a particularcallback, and communicates with an interaction manager 324 which handlesrequests to make calls and bridge calls, which go out to a media server325 which actually makes the calls as requested. In this way, the mediaserver 325 may be altered in the manner in which it makes and bridgescalls when directed, but the callback manager 323 does not need toadjust itself, due to going through an intermediary component, theinteraction manager 324, as an interface between the two. A media server325, when directed, may place calls and send messages, emails, orconnect voice over IP (“VoIP”) calls and video calls, to users over aPSTN 203 or the Internet 202. Callback manager 323 may work with auser's profile as managed by a profile manager 321, with environmentalcontext from an environment analyzer 322 as well as (if provided) EWTinformation for any callback recipients (for example, contact centeragents with the appropriate skills to address the callback requestor'sneeds, or online tech support agents to respond to chat requests), todetermine an appropriate callback time for the two users (a callbackrequestor and a callback recipient), interfacing with an interactionmanager 324 to physically place and bridge the calls with a media server325. In this way, a user may communicate with another user on a PBXsystem 311, or with automated services hosted on a chat server 315, andif they do not successfully place their call or need to be called backby a system, a callback cloud 320 may find an optimal time to bridge acall between the callback requestor and callback recipient, asnecessary.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a callback cloud including a brand interface server and intentanalyzer, operating over a public switched telephone network and theInternet, and connected to a variety of other brand devices andservices, according to an embodiment. According to this embodiment, manyuser brands 410 are present, including PBX system 411, a SIP server 412,a CRM server 413, a call router 414, and a chat server 415, which may beconnected variously to each other as shown, and connected to a PSTN 203and the Internet 202, which further connect to a cellular phone 212 anda landline 221 or other phone that may not have internet access. Furthershown is a callback cloud 420 contains multiple components, including aprofile manager 421, environment analyzer 422, callback manager 423,interaction manager 424, and media server 425, which function asdescribed in previous embodiments and, similarly to user brands 410 maybe interconnected in various ways as depicted in the diagram, andconnected to either a PSTN 203 or the internet 202.

Present in this embodiment is a brand interface server 430, which mayexpose the identity of, and any relevant API's or functionality for, anyof a plurality of connected brands 410, to elements in a callback cloud420. In this way, elements of a callback cloud 420 may be able toconnect to, and interact more directly with, systems and applicationsoperating in a business' infrastructure such as a SIP server 412, whichmay be interfaced with a profile manager 421 to determine the exactnature of a user's profiles, sessions, and interactions in the systemfor added precision regarding their possible availability and mostimportantly, their identity. Also present in this embodiment is anintent analyzer 440, which analyzes spoken words or typed messages froma user that initiated the callback request, to determine their intentfor a callback. For example, their intent may be to have an hour-longmeeting, which may factor into the decision by a callback cloud 420 toplace a call shortly before one or both users may be required to startcommuting to or from their workplace. Intent analysis may utilize anycombination of text analytics, speech-to-text transcription, audioanalysis, facial recognition, expression analysis, posture analysis, orother analysis techniques, and the particular technique or combinationof techniques may vary according to such factors as the device type orinteraction type (for example, speech-to-text may be used for avoice-only call, while face/expression/posture analysis may beappropriate for a video call), or according to preconfigured settings(that may be global, enterprise-specific, user-specific,device-specific, or any other defined scope).

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a hybrid callback system operating with a callback cloud and anon-premise callback stack, according to an embodiment. According to thisembodiment, an on-premise callback stack 510 is shown, which containsmultiple components, including a profile manager 511, environmentanalyzer 512, callback manager 513, interaction manager 514, and mediaserver 515, which are interconnected in various ways as depicted in thediagram, and connected to a call aggregator 550 which aggregates usercalls into queues using data received from an on-premise callback stack510, and allowing these aggregated and queued calls to then be managedby a callback manager 513. A call aggregator may be connected to eitherof a PSTN 203 or the internet 202, or it may be connected to both andreceive call data from both networks as needed. Further shown is acallback cloud 520 which contains multiple similar components, includinga profile manager 521, environment analyzer 522, callback manager 523,interaction manager 524, and media server 525, which function asdescribed in previous embodiments and, similarly to an on-premisecallback stack 510 may be interconnected in various ways as depicted inthe diagram, and connected to either a PSTN 203 or the internet 202.

Present in this embodiment is a brand interface server 530, which mayexpose the identity of, and any relevant API's or functionality for, anyof a plurality of connected brands or on-premise callback components 510which may be responsible for operating related brands, to elements in acallback cloud 520. In this way, elements of a callback cloud 520 may beable to connect to, and interact more directly with, systems andapplications operating in a business' infrastructure such as a SIPserver, which may be interfaced with a profile manager 521 to determinethe exact nature of a user's profiles, sessions, and interactions in thesystem for added precision regarding their possible availability andmost importantly, their identity. Also present in this embodiment is anintent analyzer 540, which analyzes spoken words or typed messages froma user that initiated the callback request, to determine their intentfor a callback. For example, their intent may be to have an hour-longmeeting, which may factor into the decision by a callback cloud 520 toplace a call shortly before one or both users may be required to startcommuting to or from their workplace. Intent analysis may utilize anycombination of text analytics, speech-to-text transcription, audioanalysis, facial recognition, expression analysis, posture analysis, orother analysis techniques, and the particular technique or combinationof techniques may vary according to such factors as the device type orinteraction type (for example, speech-to-text may be used for avoice-only call, while face/expression/posture analysis may beappropriate for a video call), or according to preconfigured settings(that may be global, enterprise-specific, user-specific,device-specific, or any other defined scope).

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a hybrid callback system operating with a callback cloud and anon-premise callback stack, and a broker server, according to anembodiment. According to this embodiment, an on-premise callback stack610 is shown, which connects to a call aggregator 650 which aggregatesuser calls into queues using data received from an on-premise callbackstack 610, and allowing these aggregated and queued calls to then bemanaged by a callback manager 613. The features and connections of theon-premise callback stack 610 are similar to that shown in FIG. 5, 510 .A call aggregator may be connected to either of a PSTN 203 or theinternet 202, or it may be connected to both and receive call data fromboth networks as needed. Further shown is a callback cloud 620 whichcontains multiple components, including a profile manager 621,environment analyzer 622, callback manager 623, interaction manager 624,and media server 625, which function as described in previousembodiments and, similarly to an on-premise callback stack 610 may beinterconnected in various ways as depicted in the diagram, and connectedto either a PSTN 203 or the internet 202.

Present in this embodiment is a brand interface server 630, which mayexpose the identity of, and any relevant API's or functionality for, anyof a plurality of connected brands or on-premise callback components 610which may be responsible for operating related brands, to elements in acallback cloud 620, through the use of an intent analyzer 640 and abroker server 650 to act as an intermediary between a callback cloud 620and the plurality of other systems or services. In this way, elements ofa callback cloud 620 may be able to connect to a broker server 650, andinteract more indirectly with systems and applications operating in abusiness' infrastructure such as a SIP server, which may communicatewith a profile manager 621 to determine the exact nature of a user'sprofiles, sessions, and interactions in the system for added precisionregarding their possible availability and most importantly, theiridentity. A broker server 650 operates as an intermediary between theservices and systems of a callback cloud 620 and other external systemsor services, such as an intent analyzer 640, PSTN 203, or the Internet202. Also present in this embodiment is an intent analyzer 640, whichanalyzes spoken words or typed messages from a user that initiated thecallback request, to determine their intent for a callback. For example,their intent may be to have an hour-long meeting, which may factor intothe decision by a callback cloud 620 to place a call shortly before oneor both users may be required to start commuting to or from theirworkplace. Intent analysis may utilize any combination of textanalytics, speech-to-text transcription, audio analysis, facialrecognition, expression analysis, posture analysis, or other analysistechniques, and the particular technique or combination of techniquesmay vary according to such factors as the device type or interactiontype (for example, speech-to-text may be used for a voice-only call,while face/expression/posture analysis may be appropriate for a videocall), or according to preconfigured settings (that may be global,enterprise-specific, user-specific, device-specific, or any otherdefined scope).

FIG. 7 (PRIOR ART) is a method diagram illustrating steps in theoperation of an on-premise callback system. A consumer may initiate acallback request to a brand handled or managed at a premise 710, such asif a consumer were to place a phone call to customer service for acorporation and the contact center or centers were unable to immediatelyanswer their call. An estimated wait time (EWT) is calculated forconsumers in the queue based on the condition of the contact center 720,determining a possible callback time based on the EWT and aconsumer-accepted time 730, such as calling a consumer back in 10minutes when an agent at the premise is available and their spot in thequeue is reached 740. Regardless of the specific time chosen, a firstcallback is attempted 740 when the selected time is reached, calling afirst party of either the brand agent or the consumer, followed bycalling of the second party if and when the first party comes online750. When both parties are online they are connected together such asbridging the two phones to a single call 760, and any callback objectused to manage the callback data is deleted after the successfulcallback.

FIG. 8 is a method diagram illustrating the use of a callback cloud forintent-based active callback management, according to an embodiment.According to an embodiment, a callback cloud 320 must receive a requestfor a callback to a callback recipient, from a callback requester 810.This refers to an individual calling a user of a cloud callback system320, being unable to connect for any reason, and the system allowing thecaller to request a callback, thus becoming the callback requester, fromthe callback recipient, the person they were initially unable to reach.A callback object is instantiated 820, using a callback manager 323,which is an object with data fields representing the various parts ofcallback data for a callback requester and callback recipient, and anyrelated information such as what scheduled times may be possible forsuch a callback to take place. Global profiles may then be retrieved 830using a profile manager 321 in a cloud callback system, as well as ananalysis of environmental context data 840, allowing for the system todetermine times when a callback may be possible for a callback requestorand callback recipient both 850. When such a time arrives, a firstcallback is attempted 860 to the callback requestor or callbackrecipient, and if this succeeds, a second call is attempted to thesecond of the callback requestor and callback recipient 870, allowing amedia server 325 to bridge the connection when both are online, beforedeleting the callback object 880.

FIG. 9 is a method diagram illustrating the operation of a distributedhybrid callback system architecture utilizing cloud services andon-premise services, according to an embodiment. First, a consumerplaces a call to a brand 905, resulting in on-premise datastores andservices being queried by a callback cloud if such a callback cloud isproperly configured and online 910. A callback cloud may be utilizednormally to manage consumer queues, calculate EWT's, manage agentstatuses and their call lengths and queue membership, and other commoncallback system functions, with the querying of on-premise datastoresand services 915. If a callback cloud is unavailable however, anon-premise callback system may be utilized as described in prior artfigures, without use of cloud services 920. If a cloud callback systemis available and configured, but on-premise callback services areunavailable, a cloud callback system can utilize last-known data such aslast-known EWT's and manage consumer callbacks as normal without beingable to query new data from on-premise datastores 925, potentiallyresulting in slightly less consistent or optimal callback handlinginitially, but still maintaining the system.

FIG. 10 is a method diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a premise callback server failure. Agent data such as schedulesand their profiles regarding average call duration are stored on-premiseand co-maintained in a cloud callback system 1005. Also co-maintainedbetween a callback cloud and on-premise callback system are callbackobjects, which hold data regarding a particular callback requestincluding the requester, the time to attempt the callback, and anyinformation regarding the brand or specific agent to perform thecallback, if applicable 1010. Should an on-premise callback server fail1015, a callback cloud may take over management and execution ofcallback objects until said on-premise callback server recovers 1020,essentially behaving as the new callback system for the contact center.Should a contact center's callback server come back online, data isre-distributed to it from the callback cloud system 1025, with theon-premise server regaining management and execution of callback objectsfrom the callback cloud 1030.

FIG. 11 is a method diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a total system failure. Agent data such as schedules and theirprofiles regarding average call duration are stored on-premise andco-maintained in a cloud callback system 1105. Also co-maintainedbetween a callback cloud and on-premise callback system are callbackobjects, which hold data regarding a particular callback requestincluding the requester, the time to attempt the callback, and anyinformation regarding the brand or specific agent to perform thecallback, if applicable 1110. Should an entire on-premise callback stackfail 1115, a callback cloud may take over management and execution ofall callback-related activities including callback execution, EWTcalculation 1125, and more 1120, until said on-premise callback stackrecovers 1130, essentially behaving as the new callback system for thecontact center. Should a contact center's callback stack come backonline, data is re-distributed to it from the callback cloud system1130, with the on-premise server regaining management of callbacksystems and updating their data from the callback cloud's data asappropriate 1135.

FIG. 12 is a method diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a premise automatic call distribution and callback serverfailure. Agent data such as schedules and their profiles regardingaverage call duration are stored on-premise and co-maintained in a cloudcallback system 1205. Also co-maintained between a callback cloud andon-premise callback system are callback objects, which hold dataregarding a particular callback request including the requester, thetime to attempt the callback, and any information regarding the brand orspecific agent to perform the callback, if applicable 1210. Should anon-premise Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system and callback serverfail 1215, a callback cloud may take over management and execution ofcall distribution and callback-related activities as necessary 1220,with on-site agents interfacing with cloud services for example througha web-browser 1225 and with remaining on-site resources being madeavailable to the cloud infrastructure as needed such as for the purposesof recalculating consumer EWT's 1230, until the on-premise callbackstack recovers, essentially behaving as the new callback system for thecontact center. Should a contact center's callback stack come backonline, data is re-distributed to it from the callback cloud system1235, with the on-premise server regaining management of callbacksystems and updating their data from the callback cloud's data asappropriate 1240.

FIG. 13 is a method diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a partial system failure, using a broker server to leveragethird-party resources for failure recovery. Agent data such as schedulesand their profiles regarding average call duration are stored on-premiseand co-maintained in a cloud callback system 1305. Also co-maintainedbetween a callback cloud and on-premise callback system are callbackobjects, which hold data regarding a particular callback requestincluding the requester, the time to attempt the callback, and anyinformation regarding the brand or specific agent to perform thecallback, if applicable 1310. Should an on-premise Automatic CallDistribution (ACD) system and callback server fail 1315, a callbackcloud may take over management and execution of call distribution andcallback-related activities as necessary 1320, with a broker serverinterfacing with third-party services such as other contact centers toleverage other resources to manage the load during the premise downtime1325. Consumer EWT is recalculated if needed 1330, and should a contactcenter's callback stack come back online, data is re-distributed to itfrom the callback cloud system 1335, with the on-premise serverregaining management of callback systems and updating their data fromthe callback cloud's data as appropriate 1340.

FIG. 14 is a method diagram illustrating calculation and recalculationof an estimated wait-time (EWT) for a distributed callback system. Anagent may log into a queue or be assigned automatically to a queue by acallback manager or call aggregator 1405, allowing consumers to call oropen communications with a brand's agents 1410. An average call lengthfor each queue is calculated 1415 utilizing branching averages, forexample most calls may be calculated to take 4 minutes, but a call thathas already progressed to 3 minutes may be calculated to have a 70%chance of reaching at least 5 minutes in length. Upon more consumersthan agents becoming available, or any change in the amount of availableagents or consumers in the queue, calculate the time based on theseaverages that the next available agent will be free to engage in a callwith the consumer 1420. This is utilized as the Estimated Wait Time(EWT) for a consumer 1425, and a consumer may be informed of the EWT forcallback purposes 1430.

FIG. 15 is a message flow diagram illustrating the operation of adistributed hybrid callback system architecture utilizing cloud servicesand on-premise services, according to an embodiment. A consumer 1505,callback cloud 1510, and on-premise callback system 1515 are theprinciple actors in data transmissions, with specific components of acallback cloud 1510 or on-premise callback system 1515 handling datainternally to the respective systems, and a consumer 1505 potentiallyusing one of many common endpoints such as a cellphone, landline phone,PC, tablet, or laptop. A consumer 1505 may place a call from one suchendpoint, to a contact center 1520, which may be received by a callbackcloud 1510 that is online and managing callback data for a given premisecallback system 1515. An on-premise callback system 1515 may co-maintaindata including average call times for certain queues, agentavailability, agent schedules, and more, with a callback cloud 1525,allowing a callback cloud to execute a callback 1530 to a consumer 1505,connecting agents and consumers with said callbacks as necessary. If acallback cloud is unavailable, an on-premise callback system insteadexecutes the callback 1535, the callback object being used to attempt toopen communications with the consumer 1505 and an on-premise agent.

FIG. 16 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a premise callback server failure. A consumer 1605, callbackcloud 1610, and on-premise callback system 1615 are the principle actorsin data transmissions, with specific components of a callback cloud 1610or on-premise callback system 1615 handling data internally to therespective systems, and a consumer 1605 potentially using one of manycommon endpoints such as a cellphone, landline phone, PC, tablet, orlaptop. An on-premise callback system 1615 may continuously co-maintaindata including average call times for certain queues, agentavailability, agent schedules, and more, with a callback cloud 1620,before a premise callback server may go offline and be unable to executecallbacks to consumers. In such an event, an on-premise failure message1625 is sent to a callback cloud 1610, informing a callback cloud toexecute any consumer callback requests 1630 to a consumer 1605,connecting agents and consumers with said callbacks as necessary. Insuch an event, the callback cloud may execute customer callbacks usingthe previously co-maintained data 1635, the callback object being usedto attempt to open communications with the consumer 1605 and anon-premise agent. In the event of an on-premise callback server comingback online, current data regarding the brand and on-premise callbackdata is forwarded back to a premise callback system 1635, for example toupdate the server with data on completed and yet-to-complete callbackrequests.

FIG. 17 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a total system failure. A consumer 1705, callback cloud 1710,and on-premise callback system 1715 are the principle actors in datatransmissions, with specific components of a callback cloud 1710 oron-premise callback system 1715 handling data internally to therespective systems, and a consumer 1705 potentially using one of manycommon endpoints such as a cellphone, landline phone, PC, tablet, orlaptop. An on-premise callback system 1715 may continuously co-maintaindata including average call times for certain queues, agentavailability, agent schedules, and more, with a callback cloud 1720,before total on-premise callback system failure, such as by a poweroutage affecting their callback system equipment and services. In suchan event, an on-premise failure message 1725 is sent to a callback cloud1710, informing a callback cloud to first re-calculate and send customerEstimated Wait Times (“EWT”) for customers 1730, since call distributionhas been interrupted and must now be accomplished by the cloud service.In such an event, the callback cloud may execute customer callbacksusing the previously co-maintained data 1735, the callback object beingused to attempt to open communications with the consumer 1705 and anon-premise agent. In the event of an on-premise callback server comingback online, current data regarding the brand and on-premise callbackdata is forwarded back to a premise callback system 1740, for example toupdate the server with data on completed and yet-to-complete callbackrequests.

FIG. 18 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a premise automatic call distribution and callback serverfailure. A consumer 1805, callback cloud 1810, and on-premise callbacksystem 1815 are the principle actors in data transmissions, withspecific components of a callback cloud 1810 or on-premise callbacksystem 1815 handling data internally to the respective systems, and aconsumer 1805 potentially using one of many common endpoints such as acellphone, landline phone, PC, tablet, or laptop. An on-premise callbacksystem 1815 may continuously co-maintain data including average calltimes for certain queues, agent availability, agent schedules, and more,with a callback cloud 1820, before on-premise Automatic CallDistribution (“ACD”) and callback servers may go offline and be unableto execute callbacks to consumers or adequately manage incoming calls.In such an event, an on-premise failure message 1825 is sent to acallback cloud 1810, informing a callback cloud to first re-calculateand send customer Estimated Wait Times (“EWT”) for customers 1835, sincecall distribution has been interrupted and must now be accomplished bythe cloud service. In the meantime, agents and services continue tointerface with the cloud 1830. In such an event, the callback cloud mayexecute customer callbacks using the previously co-maintained data 1840,the callback object being used to attempt to open communications withthe consumer 1805 and an on-premise agent. In the event of an on-premisecallback server coming back online, current data regarding the brand andon-premise callback data is forwarded back to a premise callback system1845, for example to update the server with data on completed andyet-to-complete callback requests.

FIG. 19 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of callback cloudservices to aid in the recovery of an on-premise callback system in theevent of a partial system failure, using a broker server to leveragethird-party resources for failure recovery. A consumer 1905, callbackcloud 1910, and on-premise callback system 1915 are the principle actorsin data transmissions, with specific components of a callback cloud 1910or on-premise callback system 1915 handling data internally to therespective systems, and a consumer 1905 potentially using one of manycommon endpoints such as a cellphone, landline phone, PC, tablet, orlaptop. An on-premise callback system 1915 may continuously co-maintaindata including average call times for certain queues, agentavailability, agent schedules, and more, with a callback cloud 1920,before on-premise Automatic Call Distribution (“ACD”) and callbackservers may go offline and be unable to execute callbacks to consumersor adequately manage incoming calls 1930. In such an event, anon-premise failure message 1925 is sent to a callback cloud 1910,informing a callback cloud to first re-calculate and send customerEstimated Wait Times (“EWT”) for customers 1940, since call distributionhas been interrupted and must now be accomplished by the cloud service.In such an event, the callback cloud may execute customer callbacksusing the previously co-maintained data 1945, the callback object beingused to attempt to open communications with the consumer 1905 and anon-premise agent. In the event of an on-premise callback server comingback online, current data regarding the brand and on-premise callbackdata is forwarded back to a premise callback system 1950, for example toupdate the server with data on completed and yet-to-complete callbackrequests.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a hybrid callback system operating with a callback cloud 2400 and anon-premise callback stack, and a biometric authenticator 2401, accordingto an embodiment. According to this embodiment, components of a callbackcloud 2400 may mirror the components 921-925 in previous figures (atleast FIG. 3 through FIG. 6 ). According to this embodiment, anon-premise callback stack 610 is shown, which connects to a callaggregator 650 which aggregates user calls into queues using datareceived from an on-premise callback stack 610, and allowing theseaggregated and queued calls to then be managed by a callback manager613. The features and connections of the on-premise callback stack 610are similar to that shown in FIG. 5, 510 . A call aggregator may beconnected to either of a PSTN 203 or the internet 202, or it may beconnected to both and receive call data from both networks as needed.Further shown is a callback cloud 620 which contains multiplecomponents, including a biometric authenticator 2401, a profile manager621, environment analyzer 622, callback manager 623, interaction manager624, and media server 625, which function as described in previousembodiments and, similarly to an on-premise callback stack 610 may beinterconnected in various ways as depicted in the diagram, and connectedto either a PSTN 203 or the internet 202.

Present in this embodiment is a biometric authenticator 2401. Abiometric authenticator 2401 replaces or supplements typicalauthentication practices such as verbal challenges or pin numbers byproviding a more secure means of authentication. In someimplementations, a biometric authenticator 2401 requests authenticationfrom a user from a biometric sensor on a mobile device 2402/2403. Forexample, during the requesting of a callback from a user, a callbackcloud service 2400 generates a request for biometric authenticationwhich is sent to the user device 2402/2403 that then collects andverifies the biometrics and identity of the user. The verification,whether successful or not, is sent back to the cloud service 2400 whichthen continues with the callback request procedures set forth in thevarious embodiments herein with the added function of the user havingalready been verified or not by the callback cloud 2400. In the scenarioin which a user is successfully verified, the callback object maycomprise the verification information so that when the user is calledback, the user may or may not need to be verified a second time.

A biometric authenticator 2401 may generate a biometric request in oneor more various ways. The first of which is to use Dual Tone MultiFrequency (DTMF) signals during the request for a callback. This may beimplemented when a user is currently interacting with an IVR system torequest a callback, the callback cloud 2400 generates a text message tothe user's device 2402/2403 that comprises a URL scheme to the device'sbiometric authentication application, so that when the user clicks theURL, the biometric authentication application is opened on the device.From here there are two anticipated methods to notify the callback cloud2400 of a successful or failed authentication attempt. Upon completionof the authentication attempt, a series of numbers may be shown to theuser, the series of numbers indicating success or failure, so that theuser may enter those numbers in the dial pad thus transmitting anencrypted message to the callback cloud 2400. The callback clouddeciphers the series of dial tones to determine whether the attempt wassuccessful or not based on the series of numbers, i.e., DTMF tones,received. Another method encompasses an application present on thedevice that automatically enters the dial tones for the user. Thesemethods are useful when interacting via a PSTN network 203. A secondanticipated method of requesting, transmitting, and confirming biometricauthentication between a user device 2402/2403 and the callback cloud2400 is to use an application on the user's device that may be triggeredto open a biometrics request from a user and automatically transmit thebiometric information to the callback cloud 2400. This method is bestused when Internet 202 is available. A third anticipated method is touse a third party biometric service with an API for determining theidentity of the user. Other alternative methods comprise voice matching,facial recognition, and the like.

Irrespective of the method, the user's identity information from thebiometric authentication process may be compared to records stored oneither or both the callback cloud 2400 or the on premise callback stack610.

FIG. 25 is a method diagram illustrating the use of a callback cloudusing biometric authentication, according to an embodiment. In a firststep 2500, a user calls a brand or entity desiring to speak with anagent, but is placed in a queue and given the option to receive acallback. In a second step, the user opts for a callback 2501 whichtriggers the generation of a biometric authentication request 2502. Thegenerated request may be in the form of a text message, API call, pushnotification, and the like. The user's device receives the generatedbiometric authentication request sent from a callback cloud service 2503that prompts the user to fulfill the biometric request. The biometricinformation from the user's device is received by the callback cloud2504 and is stored in a callback object. Along with the identity of theuser, an identity indicator may also be stored in the callback object2506 either verifying or denying the user as an authorized user 2505.Verification may take place by comparing the biometric information withstored user information in a user profile stored in either or both acallback cloud service and a callback stack. Verification may also takeplace on the user's device by connecting with a locally stored databasesynchronized with the data stored in either or both a callback cloudservice and a callback stack. Verification may also take place using anAPI and a third party verification service. The identity and identityindicator may be used to automatically grant or deny permissions to theuser to gain access to private information from an automated system2507. The identity and identity indicator may be provided to an agent toallow the agent to determine the level of access of the user 2507. Theidentity and identity indicator may be used to determine if the usermust reauthenticate during the callback, either before or during beingconnected with an agent. The identity and identity indicator may bestored for future analysis or provenance measures.

FIG. 26 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method fortransparent biometric authentication, according to an embodiment. When abiometric authenticator 2401 generates a request for authentication2601, for example as part of a callback request as described previously(with reference to FIG. 25 ), biometric data may be collected passively2602 without explicitly prompting a user to provide it. For example,device biometric sensor data can be requested from the user's mobiledevice without prompting the user, such as to retrieve stored biometricdata rather than prompting the user to provide it at the time of therequest. For example, if the user has used their fingerprint to unlocktheir phone, the fingerprint authentication data may be cached in thememory of the device (according to the particular device hardware andsoftware arrangements). This may also be used to collect new biometricdata without prompting the user, for example using a camera to capturethe user's face in devices configured for facial recognition, or tocollect a user's voice during an interaction to be used as a voice-basedID to authenticate the user. Passively-collected biometric data may thenbe analyzed 2603 by biometric authenticator 2401 to determine whetherthe user has passed authentication, and if the user passesauthentication (i.e., the biometric data verifies that the user isindeed the person they are claiming to be, or is the person authorizedto perform the operation in question that prompted the biometricauthentication request), the interaction may continue uninterrupted 2610(such as continuing with processing a callback request) and the user maynever know that biometric authentication even took place, thus providinga transparent and user-friendly experience while enforcingbiometric-backed authentication for security and protecting a user'sprivate information. If the user fails authentication, for example acaller attempting to access another person's account, the interactionmay be interrupted 2620 to prevent any unauthorized access, and anotification may optionally be transmitted to the user 2621 to provide anonspecific reason for the interruption without divulging any details ofthe authentication request, such as notifying the user that the requestcould not be completed, or any other generic error message that wouldavoid leaking information to an unauthorized user. In this manner,authentication is transparent to the user even when failed, and noprivate information is potentially leaked to a malicious partyattempting to gain access to a user's account or information.

FIG. 27 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method forauthenticating a user through voice identification, according to anembodiment. When a request for authentication is generated 2701, userutterances such as spoken requests or conversation with an interactivesystem may be collected and stored 2703. To improve voiceidentification, the user may optionally be prompted to speak certainspecific utterances 2702, for example their name or certain phrases.This may easily be accomplished in a transparent fashion withoutindicating to the user that they are being authenticated, such as askingthem to repeat their name and reason for requesting a callback, orproviding interactive voice prompts for further call details whilecollecting the user's responses to use for voice identification. Thesecollected utterances may then be analyzed 2704 to determine a voice IDfor the user while the interaction is ongoing, enabling backgroundauthentication of the user without delaying or interrupting theirrequest or indicating that authentication is taking place. Thedetermined voice ID may then be compared against a stored ID 2705 todetermine whether the current user may be authenticated to completetheir request, such as an authorized user of an account for whichthey're requesting a callback. As previously described in FIG. 26 , theinteraction may continue uninterrupted if the user passes thisauthentication step, or if they cannot be authenticated the interactionmay be interrupted with a notification that does not disclose anydetails of the authentication request for security reasons. In addition,if the user passes authentication, the stored ID may optionally beupdated 2706 to incorporate the newly-authenticated voice ID for futureuse, refining and improving authentication operations with eachsuccessful attempt to reduce the likelihood of false results in thefuture.

FIG. 28 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method forauthenticating a user using information in a callback object, accordingto an embodiment. When an authentication request is generated 2801 for acallback, a user may not be currently available for authentication orthey may be unknown to the callback system. For example, a new user maybe requesting a callback about potential products or services they maybe interested in as a new customer. To authenticate new or unknownusers, a stored callback object may be retrieved 2802 and analyzed 2803.Personal details in the callback object, such as (for example, includingbut not limited to) the user's name, address, contact information, orother personal details, may be compared against verifiable information2804 such as public records (such as public address records, socialmedia postings, or other publicly-accessible data that can be retrievedfor confirmation), historical data stored by the callback system (forexample, verifying whether the stored contact information matches theactual contact information received when the user made the callbackrequest), or any other information that may be accessible to thecallback system. If the user can be authenticated, such as if aconfigured number of data points can be confirmed by matching againstverifiable records, the callback object may be updated 2805 to indicatethat the stored details are authenticated, expediting future use of thecallback object by requiring the authentication process only once foreach set of user details and then treating the callback object itself asan authentication token for any requests in which it is used.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of the aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on a programmable network-residentmachine (which should be understood to include intermittently connectednetwork-aware machines) selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in memory. Such network devices may havemultiple network interfaces that may be configured or designed toutilize different types of network communication protocols. A generalarchitecture for some of these machines may be described herein in orderto illustrate one or more exemplary means by which a given unit offunctionality may be implemented. According to specific aspects, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on one or more general-purposecomputers associated with one or more networks, such as for example anend-user computer system, a client computer, a network server or otherserver system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet computing device,mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriate computingdevice), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or any othersuitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitable device, orany combination thereof. In at least some aspects, at least some of thefeatures or functionalities of the various aspects disclosed herein maybe implemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or other appropriate virtual environments).

Referring now to FIG. 20 , there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 10 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 10 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 10 may be configuredto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one aspect, computing device 10 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 12, one or more interfaces 15, and one or morebusses 14 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 12 maybe responsible for implementing specific functions associated with thefunctions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. Forexample, in at least one aspect, a computing device 10 may be configuredor designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 12, localmemory 11 and/or remote memory 16, and interface(s) 15. In at least oneaspect, CPU 12 may be caused to perform one or more of the differenttypes of functions and/or operations under the control of softwaremodules or components, which for example, may include an operatingsystem and any appropriate applications software, drivers, and the like.

CPU 12 may include one or more processors 13 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some aspects, processors 13 may include speciallydesigned hardware such as application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 10. In a particular aspect, alocal memory 11 (such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM) and/orread-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levels ofcached memory) may also form part of CPU 12. However, there are manydifferent ways in which memory may be coupled to system 10. Memory 11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, cachingand/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It shouldbe further appreciated that CPU 12 may be one of a variety ofsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additionalhardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMMSNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly commonin the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one aspect, interfaces 15 are provided as network interface cards(NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 15 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 10. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 15 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity A/V hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 20 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 10 for implementing one or more ofthe aspects described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 13 may be used, and such processors 13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one aspect, a single processor 13 handles communications aswell as routing computations, while in other aspects a separatededicated communications processor may be provided. In various aspects,different types of features or functionalities may be implemented in asystem according to the aspect that includes a client device (such as atablet device or smartphone running client software) and server systems(such as a server system described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of an aspect mayemploy one or more memories or memory modules (such as, for example,remote memory block 16 and local memory 11) configured to store data,program instructions for the general-purpose network operations, orother information relating to the functionality of the aspects describedherein (or any combinations of the above). Program instructions maycontrol execution of or comprise an operating system and/or one or moreapplications, for example. Memory 16 or memories 11, 16 may also beconfigured to store data structures, configuration data, encryptiondata, historical system operations information, or any other specific orgeneric non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device aspects may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a standalone computingsystem. Referring now to FIG. 21 , there is shown a block diagramdepicting a typical exemplary architecture of one or more aspects orcomponents thereof on a standalone computing system. Computing device 20includes processors 21 that may run software that carry out one or morefunctions or applications of aspects, such as for example a clientapplication 24. Processors 21 may carry out computing instructions undercontrol of an operating system 22 such as, for example, a version ofMICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLE macOS™ or iOS™ operatingsystems, some variety of the Linux operating system, ANDROID™ operatingsystem, or the like. In many cases, one or more shared services 23 maybe operable in system 20, and may be useful for providing commonservices to client applications 24. Services 23 may for example beWINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linux environment, orany other type of common service architecture used with operating system21. Input devices 28 may be of any type suitable for receiving userinput, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen, microphone (forexample, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball, or anycombination thereof. Output devices 27 may be of any type suitable forproviding output to one or more users, whether remote or local to system20, and may include for example one or more screens for visual output,speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory 25 may berandom-access memory having any structure and architecture known in theart, for use by processors 21, for example to run software. Storagedevices 26 may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor, orelectrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (such asthose described above, referring to FIG. 20 ). Examples of storagedevices 26 include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or thelike.

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a distributed computingnetwork, such as one having any number of clients and/or servers.Referring now to FIG. 22 , there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary architecture 30 for implementing at least a portion of asystem according to one aspect on a distributed computing network.According to the aspect, any number of clients 33 may be provided. Eachclient 33 may run software for implementing client-side portions of asystem; clients may comprise a system 20 such as that illustrated inFIG. 21 . In addition, any number of servers 32 may be provided forhandling requests received from one or more clients 33. Clients 33 andservers 32 may communicate with one another via one or more electronicnetworks 31, which may be in various aspects any of the Internet, a widearea network, a mobile telephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellularnetworks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth),or a local area network (or indeed any network topology known in theart; the aspect does not prefer any one network topology over anyother). Networks 31 may be implemented using any known networkprotocols, including for example wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some aspects, servers 32 may call external services 37when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer to additionaldata concerning a particular call. Communications with external services37 may take place, for example, via one or more networks 31. In variousaspects, external services 37 may comprise web-enabled services orfunctionality related to or installed on the hardware device itself. Forexample, in one aspect where client applications 24 are implemented on asmartphone or other electronic device, client applications 24 may obtaininformation stored in a server system 32 in the cloud or on an externalservice 37 deployed on one or more of a particular enterprise's oruser's premises. In addition to local storage on servers 32, remotestorage 38 may be accessible through the network(s) 31.

In some aspects, clients 33 or servers 32 (or both) may make use of oneor more specialized services or appliances that may be deployed locallyor remotely across one or more networks 31. For example, one or moredatabases 34 in either local or remote storage 38 may be used orreferred to by one or more aspects. It should be understood by onehaving ordinary skill in the art that databases in storage 34 may bearranged in a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety ofdata access and manipulation means. For example, in various aspects oneor more databases in storage 34 may comprise a relational databasesystem using a structured query language (SQL), while others maycomprise an alternative data storage technology such as those referredto in the art as “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™, GOOGLEBIGTABLE™, and so forth). In some aspects, variant databasearchitectures such as column-oriented databases, in-memory databases,clustered databases, distributed databases, or even flat file datarepositories may be used according to the aspect. It will be appreciatedby one having ordinary skill in the art that any combination of known orfuture database technologies may be used as appropriate, unless aspecific database technology or a specific arrangement of components isspecified for a particular aspect described herein. Moreover, it shouldbe appreciated that the term “database” as used herein may refer to aphysical database machine, a cluster of machines acting as a singledatabase system, or a logical database within an overall databasemanagement system. Unless a specific meaning is specified for a givenuse of the term “database”, it should be construed to mean any of thesesenses of the word, all of which are understood as a plain meaning ofthe term “database” by those having ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, some aspects may make use of one or more security systems 36and configuration systems 35. Security and configuration management arecommon information technology (IT) and web functions, and some amount ofeach are generally associated with any IT or web systems. It should beunderstood by one having ordinary skill in the art that anyconfiguration or security subsystems known in the art now or in thefuture may be used in conjunction with aspects without limitation,unless a specific security 36 or configuration system 35 or approach isspecifically required by the description of any specific aspect.

FIG. 23 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 40 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 40 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. Central processor unit (CPU) 41 is connected to bus 42, to whichbus is also connected memory 43, nonvolatile memory 44, display 47,input/output (I/O) unit 48, and network interface card (NIC) 53. I/Ounit 48 may, typically, be connected to peripherals such as a keyboard49, pointing device 50, hard disk 52, real-time clock 51, a camera 57,and other peripheral devices. NIC 53 connects to network 54, which maybe the Internet or a local network, which local network may or may nothave connections to the Internet. The system may be connected to othercomputing devices through the network via a router 55, wireless localarea network 56, or any other network connection. Also shown as part ofsystem 40 is power supply unit 45 connected, in this example, to a mainalternating current (AC) supply 46. Not shown are batteries that couldbe present, and many other devices and modifications that are well knownbut are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the currentsystem and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that someor all components illustrated may be combined, such as in variousintegrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsungsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate tocombine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device(for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video gameconsoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimediasystems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various aspects, functionality for implementing systems or methods ofvarious aspects may be distributed among any number of client and/orserver components. For example, various software modules may beimplemented for performing various functions in connection with thesystem of any particular aspect, and such modules may be variouslyimplemented to run on server and/or client components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various aspects described above. Accordingly, the present inventionis defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for hybrid callback management withtransparent user authentication, comprising: a callback cloud servicecomprising at least a processor, a memory, and a first plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in the memory and operating on theprocessor, wherein the first programming instructions, when operating onthe processor, cause the processor to: communicate with an on-premisecallback system; generate a biometric authentication request for a usermaking a callback request; obtain from the user device, a plurality ofvoice utterances; generate a voice ID from the obtained plurality ofvoice utterances, the voice ID being based on the biometricauthentication request relating to the identity of a user of the device;execute the callback request; and an on-premise callback systemcomprising at least a processor, a memory, and a second plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in the memory and operating on theprocessor, wherein the second programming instructions, when operatingon the processor, cause the processor to: communicate with the callbackcloud service; send data related to callback requests to the callbackcloud service; create a callback object upon a user requesting a callback from a brand; schedule a callback with the user; execute thecallback between the user and an agent at a specified time; connect thetwo parties, when the two first and second called parties are online;and confirm, using the callback object, whether the user of the deviceis an authorized user.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the callbackobject comprises a plurality of personal information details pertainingto the user.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the user is authenticatedby verifying at least a portion of the personal information details inthe callback object.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user isauthenticated by comparing the voice ID to the callback object.
 5. Amethod for hybrid callback management with transparent userauthentication, comprising the steps of: communicating with anon-premise callback system, using a callback cloud service; generating abiometric authentication request for a user making a callback request;obtaining from the user device, a plurality of voice utterances;generating a voice ID from the obtained plurality of voice utterances,the voice ID being based on the biometric authentication requestrelating to the identity of a user of the device; executing the callbackrequest; communicating with the callback cloud service, at an on-premisecallback system; sending data related to callback requests to thecallback cloud service; creating a callback object upon a userrequesting a call back from a brand; scheduling a callback with theuser; executing the callback between the user and an agent at aspecified time; connecting the two parties, when the two first andsecond called parties are online; and confirming, using the callbackobject, whether the user of the device is an authorized user.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the callback object comprises a plurality ofpersonal information details pertaining to the user.
 7. The method ofclaim 6, wherein the user is authenticated by verifying at least aportion of the personal information details in the callback object. 8.The method of claim 5, wherein the user is authenticated by comparingthe voice ID to the callback object.